The reaction was explosive. The holy, golden light crashed into her dark, Void-based code. For a second, the two opposite magics fought violently. Lyra’s shadow body shook uncontrollably. But she was not a mindless predator. She had the Ego Death. She had absolute control over her own mind. She forced the golden light to submit. She broke the holy code apart and rebuilt it in her own image. She digested the data. A sudden surge of massive power rushed through her shadow body. The flickering stopped. Her matte-black skin became totally solid, perfectly smooth, and incredibly dense. The glitching on her ankle vanished. And where her left arm had been eaten, a new arm grew back instantly. But it was not just a normal shadow arm. Because she had eaten the holy data, the new arm was lined with a very faint, deep, dark purple light. It was the exact same color as Elijah’s Kingly fire. She had leveled up. She felt a new, incredible sensation. She did not just feel the cold water of th

Elijah raised his hand. He gathered the dark violet fire. He prepared to wipe the basement completely clean. But before he could unleash the fire, a tiny voice spoke up inside his chest. It was not the System Boy. It was not the cold Sovereign logic. It was the 3% humanity. It was the boy from the bakery. “Wait,” the human part of Elijah whispered. “Where is Lyra?”The question hit Elijah’s Overclocked brain like a physical punch. The machine paused the attack. It ran a quick search of the Obsidian Spire. It scanned the 12,000 human heartbeats in the building. It scanned the medical bay. It scanned the Garden Level. It scanned the shadow corners where Lyra usually hid. [SEARCHING FOR SUBJECT: LYRA.][RESULT: NOT FOUND.]The silver circuits on Elijah’s body suddenly flickered. The steady, calm hum of the Planetary Engine stuttered and broke. [SEARCHING AGAIN...][RESULT: NOT FOUND. HUMAN BIOMETRICS DISCONNECTED.]For the first time since he had plugged himself into the throne on M

The basement of the Obsidian Spire was no longer a room made of stone and glass. It was an ocean of absolute, light-consuming darkness. Lyra, the Mistress of the Bleed, had released her new power. The matte-black shadow that made up her body had exploded outward, swallowing the walls, the ceiling, and the floor. In the center of this darkness, the Crimson Rot shrieked. The biological plague hated the dark. It was a monster of wet, red meat and hungry teeth. It wanted to eat magic, but it could not eat something it could not touch. Lyra floated in the cold, freezing water of the fold. She did not have a human heart anymore, but her Overclocked, glitching mind was working at incredible speed. She watched the infected Sarah. The architect’s white lab coat was covered in thick, dark red slime. The Crimson Rot was using Sarah’s human body as a puppet. Red tentacles whipped wildly through the pitch-black room, trying to find Lyra. A thick tentacle of meat slammed into the space where L

The Crimson Rot screamed in agony. The physical fire did what Void magic could not. It burned the wet meat into dry, black ash instantly. Lyra was free. She floated backward, her corrupted arms instantly healing and returning to smooth, matte-black shadow. "Perfect timing, Commander," Lyra’s thought-voice echoed in the room. "ORDERS, MISTRESS?" Marcus asked, keeping his flaming spear pointed at the infected Sarah. "We tag-team," Lyra commanded. Her violet pinprick eyes locked onto the monster. "The Rot is wrapped around Sarah’s spine and the silver roots. If you burn it blindly, you will kill them both. You use the fire to burn the tentacles and push the meat back. I will use the Void to perform surgery on the core.""UNDERSTOOD. ENGAGING."Marcus charged. It was a beautiful, terrifying dance of iron and shadow. The Crimson Rot unleashed a wave of a hundred bloody tentacles, trying to spear Marcus. But the Iron Marshal was an unstoppable tank. He marched straight through the mea

Two tiny, glowing violet pinpricks burned in the center of the dark mask. They were sharp, cold, and full of ancient, dangerous magic. Lyra took a step forward. But she did not walk like a normal person. Her movements were totally un-synced with reality. She lifted her foot, and then, she was instantly standing two feet closer. She did not travel the distance between the two spots. She flickered. She looked like a video game character lagging on a broken screen. She skipped frames of time. She was suddenly standing right in front of Elijah’s throne. She did not open a mouth to speak. Her thought-voice slid directly into Elijah’s mind. It was cold, smooth, and absolute. “The basement is secure, my King,” Lyra reported. Her mental voice did not tremble. “The Architect of Life is safe. Marcus is guarding the roots. The Crimson Rot inside the building has been deleted.”Elijah looked at her. His Overclocked brain processed her new form in a microsecond. But the 3% humanity in his ches